Residual Hauntings

I have a question about residual hauntings that I hope someone can answer. I've always heard it being explained as a tape recording playing over and over. Also, that when limestone or quartz, etc. was present that seemed to explain the residual hauntings even further.

If this is the case, what I want to know is why I never see where this has happened in the case that some of the people were still alive. Why is it that all of them seem to be those who have passed?

There are actually recorded cases where this HAS happened with people who are alive. I remember reading one fairly well known story where a woman moved into an apartment and on a regular basis, experienced a replay of a horrible tragedy that she thought had happened there. When she started doing her own research into the property, it was discovered that another woman had been viciously attacked and left for dead. Miraculously, this woman survived the event, and was even able to confirm many details about the events that the new tenant was experiencing.

And...as unbelieveable as it sounds, I created my own residual haunting. I was staying at my grandmother's when I received, on Christmas Eve, a phone call from my fiance that it was over, which was of course devastating. For months after that, my grandmother and uncle, who also lived there, would hear a reenactment of those events....the thud of where I threw my phone against the wall, and the wailing sob that followed. Each time it happened, she'd call me to make sure I was okay, lol.

Although residual hauntings of the living seem few and far between, I believe that its because such cases are just simply under reported, either because the witness doesn't realize what it is, or it seems insignificant. How many times have we heard a loved one call our name, when that person either wasn't around, or swears he/she didn't say anything? Perhaps, among the many theories that abound, this could be an example of a residual. How about hearing footsteps and thinking they are a "ghost?" Could they just as not easily been the residual echo of a living person?

It always seems to be that people associate residual hauntings with a tragic event (which often leads to death), because we've always been taught that these types of events provide the right type of energy or emotion conducive to making an imprint...but can't other emotions be just as powerful? Can't a repetitive, yet mundane action also be conducive to such a haunting? Those are just SOME of the many questions researchers and investigators in this field are trying to unravel, lol.

Anyway, all of this is conjecture anyway, because although there are widely accepted theories, we still cannot prove that what we refer to as a residual haunting even works this way, lol. Membrane Theory or Strings/Superstring Theory, and all those other that rely more on an explanation time and/or dimensional bleed through seem just as likely...as do many, many other hypotheses, lol.

That was a very good reply, Theresa. You mirrored many of my thoughts on the subject, especially with a common sense approach. In trying to figure out what residual haunts could be, I have often thought of the doppleganger legend, which to me seems would most likely be a residual haunt of a living person, but who knows.
Of the three ghosts I have seen personally, the second one always comes back in my memory as a possible residual haunt. It was of a full color, full detail person walking across an aisle where I previously worked (the building was built in 1913 and I saw and chased my first "real" ghost there), and disappeared into another aisle after crossing over the main aisle where I was located. He was even carring a clipboard and was wearing a one-piece tan jump suit and sported a flat-top haircut. He seemed to be just performing a normal task before he disappeared; there was no detectable traumatic or emotional impact in the viewable invironment. Whether that person was still alive anywhere in Houston was impossible to determine.
This is just another fascinating category or sub-category of paranormal phenomenon.